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Hi All

I am going to build a modest garden railway in OO gauge . Possibly with two separate track circuits to accommodate dcc on the inner with sidings, fiddle yard ect. And the outer for oo live steam.

I envisage a track bed about a foot off the ground. Having never made an outside layout before I'm going to have to pester you guys for advice. Sorry (in advance) any tips or advice would be great

Many thanks

Dave

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Hi Dave and warmest welcomes mate. I'm still relatively new to the hobby myself but you'll find help on here whichever obstacles you encounter. Someone will have solved any problem you're likely to have so don't be afraid to ask. Build your railway to suit yourself but most of all have fun. If I were doing my layout again I think I'd be tempted to go a little higher off the ground, say about 18 inches to 2 feet off the ground. We all look forward to seeing your railway progress mate. And remember you can never take TOO MANY pictures! :lol::lol: Regards. Mark

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Hi Mark

Thanks for your kind welcome and encouraging words.

I have just won an auction for a Hornby live steam set. Best anti aging cure ever from 61 to a kid again in one fell swoop :D

Interesting comment re track bed height. Can you give me a heads up as to what is the optimum height and why. Sorry but I did warn you re pestering ;)

I'm gonna make a start at the weekend so brace yourselves for more questions guys.

I recon I'm going to enjoy this project.

Cheers

Dave

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Hi Dave. The optimum height depends on your back, knees, and general fitness, if you get what I mean. Have a good read through members railways here, and make a plan of what you want. As Mark said, most problems have been overcome already, so try to identify them before you start.

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Hi Dave, welcome to the mad house! :lol: As to what height to build your layout then I can only say that the least amount of bending and grovelling on the floor the better, also don't forget the floor is not always DRY as well. I'm 58 and fairly fit I suppose, and I'm in the throws of wiring up a new section of our layout which is including a lot of the aforementioned bending and grovelling around on the floor and believe me it's getting very old very quickly.

(no sarcastic comments please Mark! then I won't have to mention your Ladders and Saws etc etc) :lol::lol::lol::lol:

All the best for now Nige. :)

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Welcome to the site, you'll find a lot of useful information on here, I've been pinching Ideas from all over the site, Just not had a chance to implement many of then yet!..

As they've said before, raising the track up high, does make life easier on the back, although I can see the attraction of the line running though a pretty garden border. My garden is trying hard to imitate a jungle, so putting it on a tall viaduct was an easy decision.

Are you going to have any of the line running into a shed? Many here have found a shed is a good place to keep the stock without having to remove it from the rails, and of course useful as a railway workshop.

I found this site when I was looking at Micks, Carved Block Viaducts, which I think is a reasonably, easy, cheap and attractive method of construction.

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Hi Guys

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice so far. I have concluded that a) joining this forum was a good idea, and b) building a garden railway is good idea.

So far I can see that an elevated track bed seems to be the way forward. Two individual track circuits for live steam on one and DCC on the other. Hoping for a dry spell tomorrow so measurements and design can begin. Well if it's too wet I have a live steam A4 to test on my rolling road. :D

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Hi All

Well a fine day, measurements taken and with the aid of the free any rail 5 software, I have a design on paper.

All timber and hardware is on order as is the track. Taking all your comments into consideration, I have gone for flexi track and a raised track bed.

I also had a chance to run my new Hornby live steam A4. Very impressive. Never played with live steam before,what a piece of engineering.

I will post some pictures soon.

Cheers Dave.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys

I have ran a test train today and so far so good. I will have to pay particular attention to the points.

Soldering next oh joy!

I have been experimenting converting a Hornby class 52 and a class 60 to run using radio control.

Using parts from eBay I have converted them for under £60 for both of them. I'm using nicad batteries at the moment. I have heard horrendous things about LiPo batteries.

I'll give more info once I have tested them.

Cheers

Dave

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Hi Dave welcome to the forum how about make a new thread in the 00 scale garden railway thread we have three new layouts here with new ideas.

Quote

Dave wrote

have been experimenting converting a Hornby class 52 and a class 60 to run using radio control.

Using parts from eBay I have converted them for under £60 for both of them. I'm using nicad batteries at the moment. I have heard horrendous things about LiPo batteries.

I'll give more info once I have tested them.

Agree with Jim, battery radio control is catching up of here now too especially in the bigger scales as you say the batteries are pretty dear.

I am looking at remotoring my old 0 gauge clock work tank loco to battery and adding a coach and that is where the power bogie will be not on the loco but will see oce I pull out the old clock working , that loco is 55 years ++ old and still working. Want to give it a new lease of life and have a train to run on the club garden railway.

Tony from down under

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Hi guys

I will photograph the two locos I have converted. Both are quite long and have plenty of room inside.

The class52 is an old Hornby and the 60 is a Lima.

I used a car/ boat 2 channel radio that comes with a receiver (£21 Amazon) speed controller that connects to the motor and the receiver (£15 also from Amazon). I am testing the 52 with a 450mAh 11.1 volt LiPo battery, and the 60 with a 280 mAh 9.6 volt nicad battery . Cost of battery £5 to £9 you can spend a lot more

I have also installed a power switch that came with the speed controller and a charging socket made from a servo extension cable.

Both locos can pull a six coach train without effort. The nicad powered train has a good speed and around 15 mins constant running endurance. The LiPo powered goes faster and has around 25 endurance.

I have no previous experience with radio control so am no expert. There must be some good working knowledge on the forum. If not then let the testing begin.

More reports and pictures to follow.

Cheers

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings All

Further to my experiment with radio control.

I have now opted for a 9volt l ion pp3 sized battery. 650 mAh capacity.

So with the new battery installed and a three coach train I ran the class 52 continuously until the battery died. It ran for just over an hour and at a scale speed of 83 mph! I installed a fresh battery and ran a six coach train and measured the speed again and got 81mph just a bit under prototypical speed for Westerns. Looks good on the layout though.

I have now found a transmitter that can control 10 different models for £25. It should arrive next week so I'll let you know once I've worked out how to use it.

My next loco to convert is an old Hornby Hymek and a HST. I had better stop there, addictive this garden railway lark init.

I have started installing the servo gear for the points today and some basic signals.

Cheers

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

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